Ex-Olympian leads voting change effortCampaign to end Electoral College takes to the states

By Brad ShannonPublished March 18th 2006 in The Olympian (WA)

Critics say the Electoral College is antiquated and needs to be scrapped. But efforts to do so never seem to go anywhere.

Attempted constitutional amendments to let voters select the president directly died in Congress in 1969 and 1979.

A national group, FairVote, is taking a new approach to the old
challenge, according to Rob Richie, a former Olympia resident and
leader of the Maryland-based group that has joined the National Popular
Vote effort.

Richie said his group is just beginning its work around the country to
get state legislatures to pass laws that pledge a state's electoral
votes to whichever presidential candidate wins the nation's popular
vote. A compact would link the states' agreements, so that once states
totaling 270 electoral votes were included, the next president would
effectively be chosen by the popular vote winner.

“I would guess we'll get at least one state joining the agreement this
year. ... We'll get states joining it one by one,” Richie said earlier
this week during a stopover in Olympia. He knows he's “not very likely
to get it in place by 2008. ... But by 2012, it's very likely.”

Illinois lawmakers already are considering such an idea, and states
such as Washington — which has 11 electoral votes, one for each of its
members of Congress — would be asked next year to join the multistate
pact.

The idea got renewed interest after the 2000 elections when George W.
Bush won the Electoral College balloting and became president, even
though Al Gore got more votes nationwide. Then in 2004, Bush won the
popular vote, but would have lost if Democrat John Kerry had gained
60,000 more votes in Ohio.

Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed has discounted the idea, arguing
that without the Electoral College's winner-take-all approach,
Washington and smaller states might not get as much attention in
presidential campaigns as they do now.

“I suspect if I were to talk to other secretaries of state, I doubt any
of them would take this very seriously,” Reed said. Scrapping the
Electoral College would lead to campaigns centered on media centers
such as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, he said.

Arguments like that are based on old information, Richie said. He said
Florida got 61 visits from presidential and vice presidential
candidates in the final five weeks of the 2004 campaign, while
Washington and 25 other states got no visits; polling also dropped off,
showing just how irrelevant those voters had become to the national
campaigns.

Additional data in his group's report, Presidential Election
Inequality, show that fewer and fewer states are true battlegrounds,
and states such as Washington are in danger of “falling off the map”
because they have become less like swing states, Richie said.

Overall, there were just 13 swing states in the last election, compared to 23 in 1960.

Several state lawmakers said they are intrigued by the idea and would like to learn more.

“I'm definitely interested in hearing it. What it would look like in
terms of a bill I couldn't say,” said Rep. Kathy Haigh, D-Shelton,
chairwoman of the House committee that handles elections.

Her counterpart, Republican Rep. Toby Nixon of Kirkland, said: “The
Electoral College is an anachronism. It was very useful in a day and
time when it was difficult to communicate long distances. The concept
of running a nationwide campaign just technically would not have been
possible. Nowadays that clearly is not an issue.”

“I think we would certainly entertain it,” said Sen. Jim Kastama,
D-Puyallup, chairman of the Senate committee that deals with election
issues.

“But keep in mind these kinds of pacts are very difficult to carry out.
We've dealt with it on everything from streamlined sales tax to
emergency management,” Kastama said. “Getting states to agree to
something exactly the same is extremely difficult.”

Sierra Club National Popular Vote Resolution

WHEREAS, the mission of the Sierra Club is to explore, enjoy and protect the planet through grassroots participation in politics and government; and

WHEREAS, presidential candidates focus their efforts and resources only in battleground states.

WHEREAS, two-thirds of the states receive little to no attention in a competitive presidential election.

THERFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Sierra Club supports National Popular Vote state legislation that will elect the President of the United States by popular vote.

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the Sierra Club supports election of the President of the United States by direct popular vote.